At a press conference three days after the Nov. 4 presidential election, President-elect Barack Obama stressed that it was not yet a part of his job to be making policy. In answer to a question about Iran, he said, "We only have one president at a time, and I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won't be until Jan. 20."

A good answer. And true enough.

But when it quickly became clear that the nation's - and the world's - financial markets were not just going to sit back for 11 weeks to see what happened when the Obama administration moved into town, the president-elect wisely began to change his tune.

Just two and a half weeks after that initial press conference, Obama announced the key members of his economic team and signaled that he intended to hit the ground running. President Bush, shortly before that announcement, said that he'd spoken with his successor about the government's plan to aid Citigroup.

We may have only one president at a time, but there's only one man who was elected to follow him at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Obama showed the right instincts in the days after the election by making it clear that he'd not be sticking his nose into the sitting administration's business, especially when it came to international affairs. And he then demonstrated that he'd not be rigid and unwilling to bend, as he quickly became very openly involved, especially on the domestic front.

On Tuesday, Obama and vice president-elect Joe Biden will meet with most of the nation's governors in Philadelphia to discuss the fiscal challenges facing the states during the current financial crisis.

It's a long way to Jan. 20. There's absolutely no reason to wait until then to get down to business. As long as Obama is not interfering with the doings of the sitting president - and there is absolutely no indication of that - getting to work now makes all the sense in the world.